First Time Mom Pt. 1

It’s 11 months down the road and 11pm at night. Babes is in his crib snoozing away; counting his cars to sleep. He’s teething, walking and mastering his mum-mum-mumies with da-ta-daties. This post has taken a little longer to put together as there is soo much to say and share, that sometimes I can’t string the words together: preggo-brain turns into mom-brain.

Also being a new parent is hard work; don’t ever think less or undercut yourself.

You have to keep the tiny humans alive on little sleep, minimal nutritious food, and maybe 10 minutes to yourself to breathe.

This entry is purely experiential and is meant to provide insight on our experience thus far. Please feel free to ask any questions about topics focused on or check in with your medical care provider.

So far we’ve survived. We’ve had our ups and downs; our doubts if we’re doing this ok. This whole parenting thing. We’ve been bombarded with opinions, medical and experiential that it’s just mind boggling at times. We’ve taken advice, gone along with it and also went with what felt good and worked for us.

We started our journey with a somewhat realistic idea of having our own offspring to take care of: feed, burp, change, dress, play, sleep; repeat. We weren’t expecting the routine and emotions faced with minimal sleep; even though newborns sleep alot. That was my biggest feat to overcome as I througly enjoyed sleeping 8 hours and napping for maybe 2 hours before he entered our world. I’ve grown used to snoozing when he does and allowing myself to take it easy and take care of me. On easier days we make it out of the house and go to play groups.

Feeding was a challenge in the sense that our little man has a posterior tongue tie, high palate and lip tie, which made it difficult for drawing sufficient milk from the breast (especially hind milk). Luckily, I was not in any pain while nursing and I over-produced so he was getting some. We just wanted to keep him gaining and gaining a little more, so based on our pediatricians recommendation we fortified one bottle of breastmilk a day. That meant pumping. Ugh. Pumping sucked for me. It took longer, and didn’t stimulate the same as babes would to get milk. Now that he’s down to a couple nurses a day and LOTS of food, I no longer have to pump as much.

Play: my favourite activity of the day. Whether that was singing, talking, tickling, tummy-time, patty-cake or laughing, my little one has grown so much through playing. It’s amazing to see their developments mentally, emotionally and physically as you interact with them. My favourite thing he used to do when he first started seeing & recognizing me was that flicker of love across his eyes. Melt your heart in two seconds. Now a days I get toys brought to me to show how it works and raspberries blown on my tummy.

Again, keeping tiny humans alive is hard work. Here I didn’t talk about it (future blog post here), but having a village around you, supporting you and supporting them is kinda the glue that makes parenting sustainable. I ranted about our experiences good and not so good thus far… how about yours? Comment below.

Love,

Sam

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Published by Sam @ Key Mindset

FTM // Doula & Counsellor // Lover of crafts, long walks and chocolate.
Blogging the journey as a memoir to the process of being true to yourself; body, mind and soul.
View all posts by Sam @ Key Mindset